Warriors back from break

June Jones and Dick Tomey, current and former Hawaii football coaches, don't agree on every concept of offensive strategy. But they do borrow from each other a lot in other areas, especially organization and practice concepts.

Jones' Hawaii Warriors and Tomey's San Jose State Spartans both drill in the morning instead of the afternoon. And this year, Jones went with Tomey's strategy of making spring break truly a break for the football team.

The idea isn't designed for the players to go frolic in Cancun, but rather, for them to avoid severely injuring tender muscles and ligaments, especially hamstrings.

Heading into today's first practice in full gear after the week off, Jones said UH is healthy overall. Junior safety Brad Kalilimoku, who strained a hamstring 11 days ago, was expected to be ready to go today.

"He'll probably be better after having the week off," Jones said.

The Warriors have 10 more practices including today's, plus something to conclude spring drills April 15 that hasn't been determined yet. Jones said he has left that up to athletic director Herman Frazier and associate athletic director John McNamara.

A scrimmage and family event at Aloha Stadium is a possibility, but a campus event seems more likely. Around 4,000 people attended a scrimmage and fan festival at Aloha Stadium in spring of 2004, but the free-admission event cost UH a significant amount of money, Jones said.

"We're investigating all the different pieces and figuring out the logistics," McNamara said. "We'll have something early this week."

Jones said UH still hasn't heard anything from the NCAA regarding the status of running backs Nate Ilaoa and Bryan Maneafaiga, safety Leonard Peters and receiver Ian Sample. They have appeals pending for eligibility in 2006 due to injuries in earlier years.